Collective Soul Returns With 'See What You Started By Continuing,' Its First New Record in Six Years: Exclusive Album Premiere

Collective Soul didn't intend to take six years between albums. But the gap leading up to See What You Started By Continuing (due out Oct. 2) was much-needed and well-used.

"We went in about three years ago to make a record, and I think we were all burned out," founder and frontman Ed Roland tells Billboard. "So we just took a year off and were like, 'Let's not think about Collective Soul for a second." Roland took the opportunity to launch his Sweet Tea Project, while guitarist Dean Roland made an album with his Magnets & Ghosts and bassist Will Turpin released an EP and a live set with his band The Way.

"It was like taking a holiday, a vacation from Collective Soul," the singer explains. "When we came back, everybody was excited to go back and do it again. After 18 years, we just really needed a break from Collective Soul, and I'm glad we did it. If you're not careful, tempers start flying and bands start breaking up. It was better to just go away for a little bit."

Billboard is exclusively premiering See What You Started By Continuing below. Listen to the full album.

Collective Soul recorded See What You Started -- the band's first album with drummer Johnny Rabb, who joined in 2012, and guitarist Jesse Triplett, who came on board last year -- in Roland's home studio in Sandy Springs, Ga. The group was touring Thursday through Sunday and would come in to record the other days. "We had a blast. We genuinely had a lot of fun making the record," Roland reports. "We were able to do pre-production live; we would learn a song, go play the songs live, get an arrangement and then take it in to record. But we got to experience them with our fans first, which was a good opportunity." All but four of the 11 tracks were road-tested and sometimes changed when the quintet returned to the studio.

"The songs really got a chance to blossom with just playing them live," Roland notes. "And it was a much more simplified recording process this time. We would set the drums up and play as a band. We actually talked about that because we used to record that way but then got caught up in trying to be too clean, too perfect. We actually used to sit in the room and play and record, so we went back to that formula."

And Roland agrees the results are more raw and rocking than the group has been on record in years. "That's what we tried to do, man. We went back and listened to what we first started doing and wanted to do that again. Hopefully people can hear and feel that we had fun making this record."

Collective Soul kicks off its tour to support the album on Sept. 29, with dates booked until Nov. 28 and plans for more after that. See their full list of dates for the See What You Started By Continuing Tour below.